Volume 42, Issue 1/2, Winter/Spring 2018
In Honor of Jürgen Habermas
Hauke Brunkhorst
Pages 190-203
Democratic Self-Determination through Anarchic, Public Will-Formation
Towards a robust theory of deliberative democracy
Aim is a robust theory of deliberative democracy. Therefore, three theses are explained by two historical examples, the revolution of 1848 in France (Chapter I), and the new social movements that emerged in the 1960s (Chapter II). The theses are that (1) democratic will-formation is related internally to truth. The foundation and justification of all legal norms in public will-formation presupposes (2) the sublation of the liberal dualism of democracy and rights and of the idealist dualism of rationality and reality in favor of (3) a continuum of public debates, social struggles, and legislative procedures.